Often overshadowed by the persecution of Jews in Germany, the treatment of Jews in fascist Italy comes into sharp focus in this volume by Italian historian Michele Sarfatti. Using thorough and careful statistical evidence to document how the Italian social climate changed from relatively just to irredeemably prejudicial, Sarfatti begins with a history of Italian Jews in the decades before fascism—when Jews were fully integrated into Italian national life—and provides a deft and comprehensive history from fascism’s rise in 1922 to its defeat in 1945. 

 

 

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
    

"Michele Sarfatti has challenged and effectively demolished the myth that Italian fascism was simply aping Hitler's Germany in its creation of the racial laws against the Jews. He describes the independent genesis of Mussolini's racial policy and its distinct character."—Alexander Stille, author of The Sack of Rome and Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism